For the Moderate Thirst (or Budget)

At Alder in the East Village, Kevin Denton, the beverage director, makes three cocktails in two sizes, regular and "short."CreditRobert Stolarik for The New York Times

By Robert Simonson

March 4, 2014

If you like wine but aren’t feeling up to a whole glass, a number of New York wine bars (including the Terroir chain) sell half-servings. If you thirst for beer but want to try a few different brews without emptying your wallet and clouding your brain, half-pints are common at many beer halls including, yes, the Half Pint in Greenwich Village. And if you are curious about an unfamiliar brand of whiskey, you can buy one-ounce pours in places like Char. No. 4 in Brooklyn and St. Andrews Restaurant and Bar in Midtown.

But if you want a cocktail, and your cash or tolerance is low, you’re out of luck. It’s either a complete commitment to a full serving (at many bars, often a supersize one) or no drink at all. Owing mainly to the complexity of making them, mixed drinks generally come in one size and at one price.

Except, that is, at a handful of bars in the East Village. At Alder, which the chef Wylie Dufresne opened last spring on Second Avenue, three of the seven cocktails on the evening menu come in two sizes: regular and “short.” At brunch on weekends, Alder’s three spins on the Bloody Mary are also offered as shorts.

A few blocks away, Evelyn Drinkery serves its “spirited phosphates” (imagine the wares of a boozy soda fountain) in “little” and “big” editions. Although shorts are not on the menu at a third bar, Gin Palace, it will serve demi-servings of its draft gin-and-tonics upon request.

“I like the idea of having something that is not a full drink,” said Kevin Denton, Alder’s beverage director. “I see plenty of people who enjoy cocktails but only finish half, because they don’t have the constitution to drink it all.”

As a bartender, Mr. Denton has another reason to like the notion of mini-drinks: They widen his experience.

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A short version of the Sanctimonious Kid from Alder.CreditRobert Stolarik for The New York Times

“Many times I go out and I ask the bartender if I can have half a pint of beer,” he said. “I don’t want to drink too much, and want to try more things.”

Alder’s short drinks would probably not be possible if they were not pre-mixed and available on draft. The on-tap cocktails can be delivered with speed and efficiency, in any size, in a matter of seconds. They also permit the bartender to give a curious patron a taste of a cocktail before deciding to buy it, a perk long afforded the beer and wine drinker.

Similarly, Evelyn is able to offer its small phosphate drinks because a large batch can be mixed beforehand and discharged from a soda siphon when the order arrives.

“It’s an introduction to everything we’re doing, if people want to taste a lot of different things without killing themselves,” said Jared Shepard, a partner at Evelyn.

In the past, mini-drinks have usually been part of a flight of cocktails — a nice idea, but one that results in more alcohol and a higher price, not the reverse. Though many other bars and restaurants offer cocktails on draft, that system is so far not being used much to serve up shorts.

Home bartenders don’t have the luxury of pre-mixed drinks, but Mr. Denton offers a recipe for one he serves at Alder: the Sanctimonious Kid, named for an Old West outlaw. In the spirit of the short drink, the measurements are small; for a normal-size cocktail, they can be doubled.